State budget includes more than $4.7 billion for public transportation

The 2013-14 state budget, which is scheduled to get final passage when the Assembly convenes tomorrow, includes more than $4.7 billion for public transportation systems in New York, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. That includes $3.3 million for Westchester County, $800,000 for Rockland and $7,400 for Putnam.

That includes a 9.2 percent bump—$358 million—for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, bringing its budget total to $4.2 billion. It also includes more than $454 million for upstate and downstate public transportation networks. It reauthorizes spending for $770 million in capital funding that was committed for its 2010-14 capital program and approximately $570 million for the continued spend-out of the MTA’s 2005-09 capital program from reappropriations of the Rebuild and Renew New York Bond Act of 2005.

“This funding will help protect toll payers, straphangers, and all New Yorkers that depend on public transportation, while at the same time supporting job-creating projects and new investments in communities across New York State,” Cuomo said in a statement.

The budget also includes $21 million in new funding, including $16 million in grants and an additional $5 million in NY Works Capital Assistance, to support downstate surburban and upstate public transportation capital investments (non-MTA). See chart above for grant totals.

Cara Matthews is a member of The Journal News' Tax Team. She has worked as an Albany correspondent and she covered Putnam County government and politics. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them.